NBC's "Constantine" Gets Dark When Eclipso's Diamond Debuts

CBR

By Stephen Gerding

Published Jan 30, 2015

"Constantine" dives deeper into its DC Comics toybox as an upcoming episode introduces Eclipso's black diamond to the series' mythology.

Though plans to showcase Doctor Fate's helmet in the first season of NBC's "Constantine" were thwarted when the network cut the number of episodes ordered, series Executive Producer Daniel Cerone tells CBR News that another of the DC Universe's iconic items will make its presence known before the season wraps.

"We had such an embarrassment of riches with those comic books," Cerone told CBR with regard to bringing elements from the comics into the television show. "I'm literally just leaving playback right now for episode 12. We utilize a black diamond which has an iconic mythology around that in the DC Universe. We did our version of the black diamond. Yes, we use the mythology as an inspiration for that episode."

The gem, known as the Heart of Darkness in DC Comics continuity, was mined on the planet known as Apokalips as a weapon for the evil New God known as Darkseid. Eventually, a demonic presence known as Eclipso took up residence in the diamond, utilizing human hosts to exert its desires on the population. The synopsis for the episode, titled "Angels and Ministers of Grace," makes no reference to the diamond, nor do any of the characters listed on IMDB directly correspond to any of Eclipso's comics aliases.

Of course, while Cerone's comments are the first time the DC artifact has been called out as having an impact on the show's plot, its existence as part of "Constantine's" mythology was revealed prior to the first episode airing.

"There are a lot of Easter eggs. There's all sorts of things in John Constantine's lair," Goyer told a room full of fans at last year's New York Comic Con. "There are dozens of them that are little trinkets that you'll find in the DC Universe. Eclipso's black diamond is in there."

As we mentioned earlier, the most famous of these 'trinkets' is Doctor Fate's helm, which has been teased since Liv picked it up in the pilot episode. And while nothing will come of it in the truncated first season, it was planned for the show to dive into its mythology. "We were utilizing the helmet -- there wasn't a Fate appearance planned in that episode. We had a big storyline built around the helmet," Cerone told CBR. "We've all been playing around with, 'Okay, what does the helmet do and how do we use it?' Once we shot the pilot, it would have been wrong to show it and not use it. It was always our intention to play it off by the end of the season."

For more on what to expect from the final episodes of "Constantine's" first season, and what had to be cut due to the shortened order, check out our full interview with Daniel Cerone.